


Where It All Began

by TinyFrostGiant



Series: Me, Myself, and I [2]
Category: Despicable Me (Movies)
Genre: Angst, Backstory, Crime, Family, Fluff, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-14
Updated: 2015-05-14
Packaged: 2018-03-30 14:30:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,576
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3940336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TinyFrostGiant/pseuds/TinyFrostGiant
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One on night, when Gru returns home after confronting an obnoxious little thief, Lucy wonders how Gru's supervillainy truly began after witnessing the joy Gru receives from freeze-raying the thief. Gru begins to tell the story, but is wracked by a painful flashback before he can continue. Overcome by old memories, Gru is forced to relive one of the most difficult times of his life-his school days, when he was bullied for being a strange Russian kid. But that wasn't a problem-he'd get back at them in the best way he could think of....which might involve sneaking a weapon to school.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Where It All Began

Gru scowled angrily at the glaring headlights in front of him as he slammed his fist down on the horn as hard as he could. A thunderous sound blasted from his car, causing the other drivers to honk irritably. Gru smiled slyly to himself while he watched the windshield wipers swish away the raindrops on the windshield. He pressed his foot to the pedal and sped past the rude drivers, smashing a few windows and denting a few fenders in the process.

            During an AVL meeting, Gru had loudly disagreed with Silas Ramsbottom and had gotten into an argument with him that had led to his punishment of having to stay up until midnight filing case reports. There were many things that Gru didn’t like about Silas Ramsbottom and he often felt like tasering him, but he knew enough to keep his mouth shut when he was speaking to him. After all, if he lost his job, he wouldn’t be able to support his family anymore.

            Still, he couldn’t believe that Silas Ramsbottom thought he and Lucy should use their lipstick tasers as torture devices. Although Gru loved to use his various weapons, he could never imagine using them to inflict pain on a suspect who might not even be guilty. He just had to speak up about it. Besides, weren’t Silas’ interrogation methods enough torture for any possible villain they captured?

            Still, Silas had insisted on giving him the filing job, and Gru had had to stay up working late into the night for what seemed like forever. He had worried for the girls’ safety, because although Dr. Nefario and the Minions were decent babysitters, he often feared that one day some horrible villain would break into his house and kidnap his daughters-or worse. Margo, Edith, and Agnes were the most important people in the world to him, and he knew he would never forgive himself if something happened to them.

            Luckily, Lucy hadn’t been punished by Silas, so she assured Gru that she would go home and look after the girls for him. Gru had been grateful to Lucy for her help and had even given her a tiny kiss on the cheek before she left, which Silas didn’t seem to particularly appreciate. He couldn’t imagine what he would have done if he had still been single.

            In fact, he couldn’t even imagine what he HAD done in a situation like this back before he had met Lucy. It was only when he had married her that he recognized how much he had had to do for the girls on his own. Because he noticed how hard Lucy worked just to provide for the girls, he remembered the times when he had had to do everything alone and realized how difficult it had been when he was a single dad.

            Gru pushed his thoughts aside for a moment as he waited impatiently for the light to change. He hated waiting for long periods of time, and he hated obnoxious drivers even more. Having to wait forever and having horrendous drivers honking in front of him at the same time did absolutely nothing to alleviate Gru’s mood. As soon as the light changed, Gru pressed his foot on the gas pedal as hard as he could. This action sent the car flying down the streets at a hundred and fifty miles an hour. Gru grinned wickedly to himself. As he always said, the speed limits were meant to be broken, and they were even more fun to break when he had three little girls and a loving wife anxiously awaiting his return.

            All of a sudden, Gru’s car made a loud grinding noise and screeched to a halt. “Oh, you got to be kidding vith me!” Gru cried out in frustration. He slammed the pedal once again, but the car still refused to budge. Gritting his teeth, Gru released his foot from the pedal and gently replaced it. The car made another grinding noise and let out a belch of smoke that covered Gru’s face in soot. The disgusting smoke soon left him coughing. It was clear that something in his car had broken down. He would have to walk the rest of the way home in the pouring rain.

            “Curses,” Gru muttered to himself. He opened the door of the car, grabbing an umbrella to shield himself from the rain. Before he hopped out, he pressed a small red button on the dashboard of the car. Two mechanical arms loaded with missiles popped out from the sides of the car. Gru smiled and hopped out. There was no way that somebody would steal his car now when he walked home. He quickly locked the door with his keys. He took one last look around to make sure that nobody had seen him. Then Gru opened his umbrella and began the long trek back to his house.

            About a third of the way home, a wicked wind billowed up out of nowhere. Gru clung to his umbrella valiantly, but the wind was insistent on ripping it right out of his hands. Gru dug his fingernails into the handle and scowled at the walk button on the traffic light pole. He slammed it as hard as he could. Like a charm, the little white walking man lit up on the sign across the street. Gru trotted eagerly down the crosswalk, beaming with pleasure. It wouldn’t be long now before he was back with his family again.

            However, before Gru was able to safely cross the street, a beat-up blue car skidded to a halt two inches too close to the crosswalk. The front of the car caught Gru in the behind. Gru tripped over his own feet and landed with an embarrassing thud face down on the sidewalk. As he fell, the umbrella was whisked out of his hands by the wind and turned inside out.

            Gru got to his feet with a groan, rubbing his bruised face tenderly. He glanced around to see if anyone had witnessed his humiliating pratfall and blushed when he saw several pedestrians staring at him in shock. However, the mortifying moment was soon forgotten as he looked around angrily for the driver who had hit him.

            The reckless driver was nowhere to be seen. However, Gru quickly spotted his inside-out umbrella lying in the middle of the street, about to be crushed. “My umbrella!” Gru exclaimed. He courageously made a dash into the traffic to retrieve it, but he was thrown backward once again by a hasty driver attempting to brake. He smacked into a stop sign with a bang and collapsed in a limp heap on the sidewalk.

            For several moments, Gru saw stars dancing before his eyes and was not able to move. When he had recovered, he was able to get up just in time to see an old woman run over his poor umbrella. “Vell…I suppose zat’s zat,” Gru mumbled. He was going to have to walk the rest of the way without an umbrella, which meant that he was going to be absolutely soaked by the time he got home.

            Glancing about shiftily, he saw a young man with a droopy mustache hurrying through the rain with a newspaper on his head. As he ran by, Gru snatched the newspaper off his head so fast that the man wasn’t even aware of the theft. Gru held the paper over his bald head and continued on his way, unaware that the man he had robbed had noticed that his newspaper was gone and was staring at Gru in confusion.

            Gru soon found out that a newspaper wasn’t exactly the best cover-up for a gushing rainstorm. It wasn’t long before the newspaper was completely soaked through. “You got to be pulling on my leg…both of zem,” Gru grunted in frustration. He tossed the newspaper aside and made sure to stomp on it as he bared the rain without an umbrella.

            Gru never thought too much about his appearance, but for once he was glad that he was bald so he wouldn’t have to worry about having wet hair. He pulled his scarf more tightly around his neck and zipped up his jacket as high as the zipper could go, but they weren’t enough to prevent him from getting utterly drenched. Gru had lived in Russia for most of his childhood, so he was used to cold, miserable weather. Still, he was secretly relieved that he was almost home so he could step into a warm shower and change out of his dripping clothes.

            Before long, the neighborhood that Gru lived in with his family began to come into view. “Thank heaven, I’m almost zere,” Gru sighed. By this point in time, he was shaking like a leaf from the icy rain that speared through his skin like tiny needles. All he really wanted was to grab a cup of hot chocolate and warm his freezing feet by the fireplace. Spurred on by the closeness of home and family, Gru began to jog towards his house, which loomed like a Gothic tower over the other, more innocent-looking homes in the neighborhood.

            But before he was even five yards from his house, a menacing voice stopped him cold. “Give me your money. Don’t try anything funny on me. Just hand it over, you fat old bird.”

            Steam shot out of Gru’s ears at this effrontery. “I’m not _zat_ fat! And I am not going to give you any money, you rude leetle man,” Gru glowered.

            “Oh, but you will. You won’t get out of here alive if you don’t,” threatened the mysterious voice. Gru flinched, but he silently opened his coat and drew his freeze ray from a secret pocket. Gru held his finger to the trigger just in case. He backed away from the robber into the glare of a street lamp. He wanted to see for himself just who this annoyingly bold thief thought he was.

            The light shining down from the lamp revealed a shrimp of a man in a worn-out pair of shoes and a ragged trench coat. As soon as the thief saw that Gru was at least two feet taller than him and was pointing an intimidating weapon at his face, he immediately started to shake.

            “Oh, I’m so sorry, sir; if I realized who you were, then I never would have tried to rob you-“the little man began to stammer. However, he never had a chance to finish his sentence. That was because Gru had fired his infamous freeze ray and frozen the shivering thief solid.

            “FREEZE RAY!” Gru cackled with wicked delight. He continued to chuckle evilly to himself for several minutes, overcome with glee at his despicable act. It had been a long while since he’d done something so…villainy. For a few moments, he felt the same rush that he used to get back in the old days when he’d freeze people in the coffee line or when he’d steal some semi-famous monument or gadget.

            His moment of evil didn’t last very long, however. In the next moment, he heard the clack of high heels on the sidewalk and saw a thin arm brandishing a lipstick taser right next to him. “LIPSTICK TASER!!” Lucy’s voice exclaimed with a bit more vengeance than usual. A strong electric current zapped the frozen thief, causing strange waves of electricity to surge around him. In a few short moments, the ice had cracked and the thief had fallen to the ground with a thunk. He was flat on his back, dazed and completely drenched with melted ice water.

            “Lucy?” Gru murmured in disbelief. He turned around to see his wife standing sheepishly beside him, holding her lipstick taser in her neatly manicured hand.

            “I’m sorry, Gru, but I saw that little guy cornering you on the street and thought that you might need help,” Lucy explained.

            “Vell, I think zat HE vas ze one who needed help,” Gru smirked.

            “Yeah, you really showed him, Gru,” Lucy giggled. After she finished laughing, she added in a more serious tone, “It’s just-I thought he beat you up because you had a huge bump on your head and your face was bruised…”

            Gru swiftly put a hand on his head and realized that Lucy was right-he really did have a ginormous lump. He groaned as he recalled all of the horrible things that had happened to him before he had freeze rayed the thief. No wonder Lucy thought that the man had attacked him. At this rate, he was grateful that he hadn’t lost a leg yet.

            “No, but it’s a long story,” Gru sighed. “Vhen I vas driving home from verk, ze car broke down and it spit smoke all over my face, so I had to valk back home. But zen I got hit in ze behind by a car on ze crosswalk and my umbrella got blown into ze road. So I tried to get it back and zen I got knocked into a stop sign, but ze umbrella got run over, so…”

            “…You had to walk back home in the rain without it,” Lucy finished. Gru gave her a funny look. She blushed redder than a tomato in response. “Sorry, I couldn’t help it. I can’t believe all of that happened to you, you poor thing. Well, I guess we’d better walk back so you don’t get sick, huh?”

            “You read my mind exactly,” Gru admitted. He bashfully slipped his hand into Lucy’s, and together they walked the rest of the way back to the Gru family home. Inviting yellow lights glowed softly in the windows as they walked up the driveway and stopped before the door. Almost unconsciously, as though they had read each other’s minds, Gru and Lucy knocked on the door simultaneously.

            Kyle’s noisy barking greeted them as a rather harassed-looking Dr. Nefario yanked open the door. The thin, wispy white strands of hair remaining on his head were askew and his face was covered with soot, as though something had suddenly exploded on him. His disheveled appearance, combined with his droopy posture and frowning face, made it clear that Nefario had had an experiment backfire disastrously on him in the lab.

            “Gru, what on Earth have you been doing? You should have come back hours ago!” Dr. Nefario burst out in exasperation.

            “I-I’m sorry, Dr. Nefario, but I had to do some filing for Sheepsbutt and zen ze car broke down…” Gru paused halfway through his sentence and slapped his forehead. “Oh, I can’t believe zat! I left ze car locked out in ze rain vith active missiles sticking out ze sides! Vhat if somebody’s already stolen it?” he groaned.

            “If I were you, Gru, I’d be more concerned about the POLICE seeing it,” Nefario scolded. “What if they arrested you? We’d have to bail you out! And let’s face it; we barely even have enough money to keep us going in the first place.”

            “No, no, it’s not ZAT bad yet,” Gru spluttered awkwardly. He absentmindedly wrung out his scarf as he spoke. It wasn’t until Lucy gasped in shock that Gru looked down at his feet. A huge puddle of rainwater was spreading out and soaking the carpet below him. He hesitantly took another step into the house, causing even more water to drip onto the floor.

            “L-look, I’m sorry-“Gru began to apologize.

            Nefario cut him off with a brusque wave of his hand. “It’s all right, Gru. Just tell me where exactly you parked your car so I can fix it.”

            “I-I think it vas parked on South Avenue somewhere near a coffee shop,” Gru admitted. Dr. Nefario raised an eyebrow but did not comment. Instead, he shuffled back into the house to get an umbrella and a raincoat so he could brave the rain in order to fix Gru’s vehicle.

            “Uhh…Gru? I think you’re making a lake in here,” Lucy giggled, pointing once again at the sopping-wet carpet. “You might want to change into something a little…drier.”

            “Okay, I get it, I’m destroying ze rug!” Gru harrumphed. “I’ll go change into something and zen I’m going to bed, because otherwise I’m probably going to be doing a lot of freeze-raying in ze morning.”

            “Okay then,” Lucy nodded in agreement. Gru gave her an exhausted smile before he trudged over to his bedroom to change out of his soggy outfit. He quickly slipped out of his clothes and dropped them in a messy heap on the floor before he changed into his pajamas. Gathering the clothing in his arms, Gru walked to the washing machine and tossed everything in.

            He was just about to mop up the mess he had made at the door when he accidentally bumped into Lucy.

            “Oh, I’m so sorry, Lucy; I didn’t see you there,” Gru apologized in a startled voice.

            “It’s okay, Gru; I should have looked where I was going in the first place,” Lucy said. She glanced at the clock, seemingly distracted by something. Before Gru could ask her what she was thinking, however, she told him exactly what was on her mind. “Look, I know it’s really late, but…do you want me to make you tea or hot chocolate or anything before you go to bed? You look like you could use it after walking all the way back to our house in the rain.”

            “No, no, it doesn’t matter; I just want to go to bed, really,” Gru mumbled sleepily. He covered his mouth as a huge yawn escaped him.

            Lucy could see that her husband really was exhausted, but there was something she wanted to ask him about before he went to bed. When she had been barreling outside with her lipstick taser to help him fight off the stranger that had attempted to rob her husband, she had seen a side of Gru that she’d never known about before. When Gru had freeze rayed the stranger, he seemed to be overcome with wicked delight and had laughed in a very strange way. It was almost as if Gru had taken pleasure from the fact that he was committing an act of evil.

            Although she knew about Gru’s checkered past as a supervillain, she had never actually seen him in action before tonight. It was something about him that intrigued her, but she was also afraid of this dark side of Gru. Whether she loved or feared this hidden part of Gru, Lucy still couldn’t help wanting to know just a tiny bit more about his past.

            “Gru, I know you really want to go to sleep, but…there’s something I want to ask you about,” Lucy spoke up.

            Gru sighed and slouched in defeat. He had the feeling that he was going to be up until one in the morning explaining to Lucy about whatever it was that she was wondering about him. “Okay, but you better not be pulling on my leg,” Gru grunted.

            Lucy flashed her husband a charming grin. “Okay! This will be so fun! I’ll go make some tea and then we can talk,” she agreed before dashing off to the kitchen. Gru followed her reluctantly and flopped into a booth at the kitchen table. Lucy immediately began making the tea, humming happily to herself as she dropped the tea bag into the pot.

            While Gru watched Lucy brew the tea, he tried to figure out what it was that she wanted to ask him. Had she seen the iron maiden in his house and worried that it was too dangerous to have in a home with three little girls? Or had she perhaps found out something about his past that made her distrust him? Whatever it was, Gru wasn’t particularly looking forward to discovering what question she had to ask him.

            Lucy placed a cup of tea in front of him and plopped down in the seat next to him, breaking his reverie. “So…Gru…” Lucy began. She took a deep breath and sipped some tea before she continued. “I just wanted to ask…I saw you laughing when you freeze rayed that thief, and I’ve never seen you do anything like that before. I know you were a supervillain and you stole the moon and everything…but I wanted to ask….how did all this start?”

            “How did all of VHAT start?” Gru echoed, pretending he didn’t understand. He picked up his tea and took a sip of it, trying not to show his unease at Lucy’s questioning. He hadn’t really told anybody his past in full, and he didn’t know how Lucy would react to it. Would his past plant fear and distrust inside her, or would she accept the good, the bad, and the ugly parts of him?

            Gru looked at Lucy for reassurance, but she merely returned his steady gaze. Whether he liked it or not, Lucy wanted answers and Gru would have to give them. He sighed deeply and stared into his tea, too afraid to look his wife in the eye. “All right zen, I’ll tell you all about my past. But it isn’t a pretty one….and more likely zan not, it vill involve very painful flashbacks for me.”

            Lucy held Gru’s hand and squeezed it tenderly. “Don’t worry. I’ll be here for you, no matter what,” she promised.

            Gru gave her a grateful smile, cleared his throat, and began to tell his story. “Okay. Vell, it all starts a very long time ago, back vhen I vas ten years old in 1970. That vas ze year zat my father, who vas a spy for ze Russian army, died on ze battlefield. On zat year, everything turned upside down. My mother vas so hurt by my father’s death zat she completely froze me out. All she cared about vas making sure ve both stayed alive somehow and trying to get over ze death of my daddy.

            Unfortunately, my mother vasn’t able to support our leetle family in Russia, so ve snuck out of ze country to find a new life in America. Ve sort of had to sneak past ze officials because zey denied our passports...vell, my mother vas good at karate, so she knocked out ze people who wouldn’t let us pass in ze airport. After zat….ve moved around a bit until my mother found a job teaching karate in Albuquerque.

            It vasn’t exactly ze place ve vanted to be, but it verked, except for ze fact zat I vas bullied in school. Everybody thought zat I vas a leetle freak and zey stayed away from me because zey thought zat since I vas a Russian, me and my family were Communists. Zey didn’t exactly know vhat zat meant until high school, but zey heard zeir parents talking about it and knew it vas bad. So zey thought zat since I vas Russian, I must be bad too.

            Because of zat, zey all avoided me at school. Nobody vanted to be my friend, and if zey did, I couldn’t even tell zem zat I wanted to be friends back because I didn’t know any English. I had to learn it from scratch, and my accent vas thicker back zen, so it vas hard for anybody to understand me.

            I hoped zat things vould get better for me, but zey never did. Zey just kept getting worse. I vas bullied, teased, shunned, and even beat up. I never DID anything to make people vant to treat me zis vay, but because I vas different and I vas struggling to learn English, everyone decided zat I vas a freak. I couldn’t even talk to anyone about my problems, because my mother hated me and I had no friends at all. I didn’t even have a dog because my mother had a hard enough time just trying to feed ze two of us.

            But it vasn’t until ze last week of twelfth grade zat everything changed….” Gru suddenly shut his eyes and clutched his tea mug tightly. He could feel a painful flashback coming like a tidal wave. He groaned in anguish and prayed silently for it to end as quickly as possible.

            “Gru! What’s wrong? Are you okay?” Lucy called faintly somewhere far away from where Gru was. He wanted to tell her that he was okay, but he couldn’t. There was something about this flashback that was different from the others. Usually, they happened at inconvenient times, caused a brief flash of pain, and disappeared as swiftly as a bad dream. This flashback was something far more powerful than that. It seemed as if some strange force had grabbed onto him and trapped him inside its deadly iron grip.

            The last thing that Gru heard was Lucy running across the floor, screaming Dr. Nefario’s name and calling for help. Then he fell into the chasm the flashback sucked him into and fell forward with a sickening thud.

 

…………………………………………………

 

            Eighteen-year-old Felonius Gru slammed his foot down on the pedal of his new car as he pulled to a stop in front of Albuquerque High. Although he hadn’t been going particularly fast, he still managed to break three windows and ding four cars before he sputtered to a stop in the parking lot.

            “Zat’s a new record for me,” Gru frowned as he grabbed his midnight-black satchel and hopped out of the car. He made sure to lock it tightly before he started the arduous trek up to the entrance of the dreaded high school.

            The walk wasn’t a particularly long or difficult one, but for Gru it was even more difficult than scaling a mountain. High school had been a terrible experience for him ever since his freshman days because of the cattiness and exclusion that the other students had shown him.

            He never understood WHY everybody hated him. He’d never really done anything horrible enough to cause their hostility towards him. Was it the fact that he always dressed in black? They didn’t know how horrible bright colors looked on him. Was it because he tended to keep to himself? Well, it was THEIR fault that nobody talked to him between classes, since they’d turned their noses up at him since the first day of high school. Or could it be that perhaps that he was just a tiny bit _different_ from them that made them loathe him so badly?

            Well, if that was how they were going to treat him, he was going to snub them right back. Gru patted the lump stuffed into his bag to reassure himself. He’d found an old gun that his father had used as a spy in the attic and altered it slightly so that it shot out rays of freezing cold material instead of bullets. He’d tested it several times on both living and non-living objects to make sure it was relatively harmless before deciding to bring it to school. After all, the last thing he wanted was to get expelled for harming another student. He tried so hard to get good grades despite all of the suffering he faced every day, and he knew his mother would throw a fit if he was kicked out before graduation.

            Gru walked through the doors and into the halls of his high school. He glanced at a clock in the hall and gasped with shock when he realized that if he didn’t hurry, he would be late for English class. He immediately broke into a run that would have won him a trophy if he’d been at a track meet. He puffed and panted as he furiously struggled to win the race against the clock, which ticked as slowly and painfully as the hand of fate. The other students wandering the halls gave him strange stares as he barreled past them, but he didn’t have time to worry about what people thought of him. The only thing that mattered was making it to class on time.

            Eventually, the door of the English classroom came into sight. “Thank goodness, I made it!” Gru panted. He opened the door and leaped into the classroom just as the bell rang throughout the school.

            As Gru slowly recovered from the run, he turned around to face the rest of the class. He realized that everyone, including the teacher, was giving him a strange look. Gru blushed in embarrassment and turned back to the teacher. “I’m sorry, Mrs. Hartfield, but I-“Gru started to apologize.

            Mrs. Hartfield gave him a withering look that could have shriveled a rose bush. “Just sit down, Felonius,” she snapped. “And next time, try not to break the speed limit when you’re late to class.”

            “I…I’m _late_?” Gru asked incredulously. Mrs. Hartfield’s glare was enough to tell Gru that he hadn’t made it on time after all. Everyone in the classroom burst out laughing as Gru slouched in embarrassment. Blushing like a sunburned tomato, Gru slunk back to his seat and slid down dismally in his chair. He knew what was coming when the day started out like this. There would be droning lectures, scolding, teasing, and utter miserable for the rest of the day, and he’d never be able to escape it.

            But then he remembered the new weapon stuffed in his bag. An evil grin spread across his face as he imagined just what he could do to the bullies with it. No more would he be the picked-on runt of the school-he’d be a somebody, and everybody had better watch out if they knew what was good for them.

            A girl sitting behind him shoved Gru irritably in the back. “You’re weird, you know that?” she hissed in his ear.

            Gru merely turned to her and gave her a stare that caused her to shut up and slump back in her chair. As soon as Gru had turned back around, however, he could hear the other students behind him whispering horrible things. Normally, he would have been bothered, but today he knew that they would be the victims for once. All he had to do was find the perfect time to enact his revenge, and the world would be his.

 

……………………………..

 

            Gru quickly pulled on his gym shorts and laced up his running sneakers as he prepared for gym class in the locker room. He glanced around to make sure that nobody was looking at him and found much to his chagrin that all the other boys in the locker room were glaring at him. Gru blushed and hurried to the door, trying to ignore them and hide his awkwardness. Changing had always made Gru feel vulnerable, since he didn’t like other people to see his skinny legs and glimpse him briefly in his smiley-face underwear. But it was a part of high school, and he had to put up with it no matter how mortifying it was for him.

            He was only three feet from the door when he heard a menacing voice behind him that stopped him cold. “Think you’re better than us because you’re Russian, huh, stick-legs?”

            Gru whipped around to see a blond teenage boy with freckles smiling nastily at him. He recognized the boy immediately and flinched with shock. It was Alexander Felix, a student who had cruelly bullied him ever since the first day of high school. And it wasn’t just Alex who was teasing him-all of his horrible friends ganged up on Gru as well and seemed intent on making his life as miserable as possible.

            Instead of turning away or yelling at Alex as he usually did, Gru calmly reached into his locker and prepared to freeze the bully solid. But before he could do that, Alex boldly strode up to him and shoved him in the chest. The rest of the students snickered as Alex’s friends slowly surrounded Gru, who was struggling to his feet.

            “I-I’m not cooler zen you! And you aren’t zat cool either!” Gru snapped back. He realized what a grave mistake he’d made when Alex’s eyes narrowed viciously. He made a signal to the other boys surrounding him, and faster than Gru could possibly have believed, the bullies shoved him into the locker and slammed the door shut on him.

            Gru gasped for air as he frantically attempted to open the door. No matter how hard he tried, it wouldn’t budge. He took a deep breath, leaned his shoulders up against the door, and pressed against it with all of his might. He heard a bang outside and what sounded like a body hitting the floor. The next things he heard were a bunch of swearing and voices muttering about how a darned jerk could be so strong. He realized that he must have shoved Alex and his friends to the floor when he nudged the door with his shoulders.

            He gulped as the footsteps of the other students became fainter and fainter. He knew that he was alone now in the locker room. He screamed and screamed as loud as he could for help, but nobody answered his pleas. He panicked as he realized that there was no way to escape the locker.

            Suddenly, an idea of possible escape entered his mind. He might be able to punch the door open, but then he’d be late for class and would probably get detention later in the day. Still, detention would be better than slowly suffocating to death in the cramped locker. Grabbing his freeze ray with his left hand, Gru gradually raised his right hand and prepared to hit the door of the locker as hard as he could. He balled his hand into a fist, aimed, and slammed the door with all the force he was capable of.

            The door flew open with a bang and hit a student wearing gym shorts right smack dab in the face. “Sorry,” Gru muttered as he stepped over the groaning student and ran as fast as he could to the track. By the time he got there, he was puffing and dripping with sweat. The other students glared back as he screeched to a stop and attempted to catch his breath. Gru looked at the teacher apologetically, but she merely shook her head and sighed in defeat.

            Gru began to jog around the track, trying to keep up with the other students. Unfortunately, he didn’t notice the brawny leg sticking out in front of him. He tripped and faceplanted on the ground with a humiliating thud.

            Rubbing his bruised face tenderly, Gru looked up to see Alex standing over him with a sneer. “Guess you’re pretty slow for a Russian, huh?” Alex snickered cruelly. As if that wasn’t bad enough, all the other students within earshot began laughing hysterically.

            Gru swiftly leapt to his feet, trying to hide the fact that he was blushing. “And YOU’RE pretty cold for a bully,” Gru smiled deviously. He’d finally found the perfect moment to use his new freeze ray. He stuck his hand in his pocket and prepared to freeze Alex solid.

            “What’s that supposed to mean? You’re trying to make me look bad, aren’t you?” Alex asked nastily. Gru whipped out his freeze ray and pointed it directly at Alex’s face in reply. He took a moment to savor the horrified look on Alex’s face before pulling the trigger and freezing the bully in a solid block of ice.

            The other runners on the track stopped dead in their tracks and whipped around to face Gru. Gru grinned as he took in the shocked looks on their faces. It was clear that he was the one in charge now. He’d finally gotten revenge on Alex and shown everybody who he really was. And he was a person that they shouldn’t mess with if they knew what was good for them.

            Gru was so busy reveling in his victory that he didn’t notice the teacher and the policemen walking up behind him until it was too late. It wasn’t until a hand was placed on his shoulder that he realized that someone was watching him. Horrified, Gru turned around to face his furious teacher and two strapping policemen.

            “I-I didn’t….it vas an accident….and I didn’t hurt him!” Gru stammered as he tried to escape from the hand of the policeman on his shoulder.

            “I’m sure it was. You can tell us all about the incident and that WEAPON of yours at the police station,” snarled the officer as he clapped a pair of handcuffs onto Gru’s wrists and led him towards the police car.

            Gru struggled to break free, but the policemen held him back. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you. Resistance will only give you a longer jail sentence,” warned the other officer. At this, Gru went silent and dutifully followed the policemen to their car, which was parked at the side of the road that went past Albuquerque High. To Gru’s surprise, his mother, Marlena, was waiting by the car for him.

            “M-Mom? How did you know zat I freeze rayed Alex in gym class?” Gru stammered in surprise. He hadn’t expected the news of his wicked act to travel so quickly.

            Marlena nodded, disappointment shining in her icy eyes. “Son…I am very disappointed in you. How could you do zis to me?” Marlena demanded angrily.

            Gru hung his head and gulped, trying to hold back the tears of fear that were welling in his eyes. “I…I vanted to get back at ze bullies, so I found zat old gun of Dad’s and turned it into a freeze ray,” Gru explained ashamedly. “I didn’t hurt Alex, but I just vanted to get back at him. But I didn’t know zat ze teacher vas watching, and zen ze police arrested me…”

            “Felonius…we’re going to have a very serious talk vhen all of zis is over,” Marlena replied coldly as she got into the police car. “But in ze meantime…try not to resist ze police and make sure you answer all ze questions that zey ask you honestly.”

            “I vill, Mom,” Gru replied miserably. He looked out the window and sobbed with despair as the police sped away from the school with their sirens flashing like beacons of hopelessness.

 

 

………………………………….

 

            “Gru! Wake up! Gru, are you okay? Talk to me, sweetie!”

            Gru moaned in pain as the voice of Lucy echoed like sonar in his aching head. His heart and head pounded in unison, making it difficult for him to even consider moving. He tried to lift his head, but it was far too heavy. He flopped back down and remained still for several moments as he recovered from the horrible flashback. Never before had he had such an intense or vivid flashback before. No wonder it made him faint. He fervently hoped that he would never have another one like this again anytime soon.

            Another voice cut into his head, interrupting his sluggish thoughts. “Gru! It’s me, Dr. Nefario! Can you hear me?” Gru felt a hand urgently shaking his shoulder. “Gru, I really hope I don’t have to use the fart gun on you this time…”

            Startled by this thought, Gru jolted and managed to crack open one weary eyelid. Through his blurry vision, he saw Lucy and Dr. Nefario leaning over him with worried looks on their faces. “Couldn’t you have let me sleep just a leetle longer?” Gru protested sleepily.

            “But Gru, you weren’t sleeping! You-you passed out!” Lucy faltered. “Oh, Gru, I can’t tell you how scared I was when you fell down and knocked the tea off the table…I thought I was going to have to take you to the hospital!”

            “Vhat tea? I don’t remember drinking any tea,” Gru mumbled in confusion. He blinked a few times and tried to sit up, but an attack of dizziness forced him to remain still. His eyes wandered aimlessly around the room until something on the floor caught his attention. Scattered pieces of shattered white plastic were lying in a pool of brownish fluid.

            Gru sighed when he realized that he was looking at the remains of his cup of tea from earlier. “I’m sorry about zat, Lucy. I didn’t mean to break ze cup-I just had a really bad flashback and couldn’t stop myself from falling,” he apologized.

            “Wow, that was some flashback then,” Lucy replied playfully. “I mean, I’ve seen you get flashbacks before, but I never thought you were the fainting kind of guy.”

            Gru blushed in embarrassment at Lucy’s comment. “I-I don’t faint! It vas just zis one time, zat’s all,” he protested. He covered his mouth as a loud yawn escaped from him. “I-I’m just really tired, zat’s all. I-I need to go to bed.”

            “You have every right to be tired at one o’clock in the morning, Gru,” Dr. Nefario reassured him.

            Gru stared at Dr. Nefario in utter shock. “V-vhat! I-I’ve been out for an HOUR?!” he stuttered incredulously.

            Dr. Nefario nodded. “Yes, and we’ve been trying to wake you up that long,” he sighed. “Oh, and before I forget, I managed to fix your car in the rain, but it only went three miles before it broke down again. I had to walk home and then Lucy told me that you fainted....so I forget to bring the car back.”

            “Vonderful,” Gru groaned sarcastically as he slapped his forehead. When he saw Dr. Nefario’s venomous look, he quickly added, “Vell, I suppose I can always go to look for it in ze morning. Good night, everybody!” Without another word, he trotted up the staircase, brushed his teeth, and flopped exhaustedly into bed.

            Lucy plopped down next to him and gently touched his arm. “So, Gru…what was it that happened in twelfth grade that changed everything?” she whispered.

            Gru started in shock and stared at Lucy as though she had gone insane. “Ummm…you were telling me about how everyone was mean to you when you were growing up, and then you were saying that something happened in twelfth grade that changed everything before you passed out,” Lucy reminded him.

            “Oh yes, I vas,” Gru recalled. “Ze thing zat happened in twelfth grade vas zat I turned my dad’s old gun from ze Russian army into ze freeze ray and froze zis horrible bully called Alexander Felix on ze track in gym class. But zen I got arrested by ze police after zat and my disappointed mother had to go to ze police station vith me.”

            Lucy gasped with surprise. “Did you get put in prison?”

            Gru shook his head. “No, zey didn’t because my mother begged and pleaded vith zem to let me go. Ze high school didn’t exactly vant me back, but…vell, my mother is very good at persuading people to do things zat she vants zem to do. But after zat day, everybody vas afraid of me…and I liked zat. I liked zat I vas ze one in control. I liked zat zey didn’t bully me ever again because zey know zat I vould freeze ray zem if zey did. I vanted more of zat vonderful feeling, and eventually I found zat being a supervillain gave me zat feeling.”

            Lucy paused for a moment as she took in everything that Gru had said. “Wow…that’s incredible. I had no idea that you had such a hard life back then. I guess that explains why you were a villain before you adopted the girls.” Then she smiled slyly, put her elbows on Gru’s chest, and stared eagerly into his blue eyes. “But now that we’re here, you don’t feel that way anymore, do you?”

            “N-no, I don’t,” Gru spluttered in confusion. He hastily shoved Lucy off his chest, but she just snuggled up to him in bed and wrapped her arms around him. He looked helplessly at Lucy, but she just gave him a flirty wink and snuggled even closer. Gru sighed in defeat and wrapped his arms around her in return. He was still getting used to the whole touchy-feely thing, and Lucy would always find a way to cuddle him no matter how hard he tried to get away from her.

            “So…what did you do after you graduated from high school?” Lucy asked, interrupting Gru’s train of thought.

            “I packed my bags and vent to New York as soon as I could,” Gru explained grumpily. “I didn’t really like Albuquerque in ze first place. Ze coffee zere vas horrible, for one thing.”

            Lucy laughed and held Gru even closer. “So you’re a New Yorker, huh?” she teased, eyes sparkling with curiosity. “What was it like living in New York then?”

            Gru groaned. He didn’t want to spend all night telling Lucy his life story, especially when he was so exhausted. “Don’t push ze issue. I’m exhausted, and it’s too late to talk about New York anyway,” he grunted.

            Lucy nodded, released Gru from the bear hug, and slid back into her normal sleeping position in bed. “Okay then. Good night, Gru. See you in the morning,” she said softly.

            “Same to you too, Lucy,” Gru replied. He closed his heavy eyelids and immediately sank into a deep sleep. There would be more to tell Lucy in the morning, but for now he was content to doze, knowing that there wouldn’t be any more flashbacks to disrupt his slumber.

 


End file.
